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Concluding statement issued by the World Council of Churches delegation

The WCC general secretary sent an ecumenical delegation to Jerusalem and the West Bank from 27 June to 1 July 2001 to meet with the Patriarchs and Heads of Christian Communities in Jerusalem as well as key local clergy and laity, church-related and ecumenical organisations including Israeli and Palestinian human rights and peace activists. This was an exploratory and consultative mission as part of a preparatory process for an international ecumenical meeting to be convened in Geneva.

Liturgy of a service held in the Gedächtniskirche of Berlin, Germany, on 4 February 2001 to launch the Decade to Overcome Violence.

WCC programme on Interreligious dialogue and cooperation

This document has been published by the World Council of Churches and other partners, including Islamic organisations and specialised journals. It is the fruit of a Muslim-Christian meeting held in Amersfoort, Netherlands in November 2000. Convened by the World Council of Churches, it took stock of the various Christian-Muslim dialogue initiatives of this organisation since 1991. During the last nine years, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, educators and activists have discussed the thorny and sometimes divisive issues of religion, law and society, human rights, religious freedom, community rights, mission and da'wa and communal tensions. This document draws largely on their questions, reflections and conclusions.

Letter from the participants in a multifaith consultation on religious education held in Bangkok 11-15 October, 2000, to colleagues engaged in religious education within all our religious communities and in educational institutions.

Economic growth without social and cultural justice cannot be our idea of development. It is imperative that development is measured in terms of the quality of human life, which can be reflected in, for example, better education, health and life expectancy for every single member of society. This is only possible if men and women are equally empowered, in theory and in practice. And the North has a crucial role to play in this process. Anything that falls short of restoring peoples' dignity, sense of identity, continuity and security should never be accepted. Africa needs to learn to respect the dissenting voice of its own people.

The Vocation of the Laity in Church and World: Towards an Inclusive Community on Different Levels" - a response by by Elizabeth Tapia to the paper "Formation of the Laos".

Bible study on 1 Peter 2:9 led by John Fotopoulos at the May 1997 consultation on the theme: "Towards a Common Understanding of the Theological Concepts of Laity/Laos: The People of God."

From 7-10 May 1997, twenty-seven men and women in cooperation with the World Council of Churches met in Geneva to consider together the possibility of a common understanding of the theological concepts of laity/laos/the people of God. We talked about the present situation and future challenges to the Christian churches. The meeting was chaired by Fr Nicholas Apostola (Romanian Orthodox Church) and Dr Anne Tveter (Lutheran). It was organized by Evelyn Appiah, Executive Secretary of the Stream of Lay Participation towards Inclusive Community.

In 1979 the WCC produced a document entitled "Guidelines on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths" which sought to identify and discuss the major practical and theological issues in interfaith relations. While it addressed some of the overall aspects, it recognized the need for more specific "guidelines" or ecumenical considerations on Christian relations with each of the major faith communities in the world. This document results from the attempt to follow this up in the area of Christian-Muslim relations. It draws on the experience gained from the considerable work carried out over the years. All the meetings between Christians and Muslims organized by the sub-unit on Dialogue during the past twenty years have been documented in the WCC publication "Meeting in Faith". These meetings, however, are only a small part of a much richer history of relations and numerous dialogue encounters in many places. The document that follows is itself based on five regional meetings between Christians and Muslims organized in different parts of the world. These meetings helped to identify some of the important issues which Christians and Muslims need to reflect on and continue to consider together in the years ahead. Many qualified persons in the field of Christian-Muslim relations were consulted in the process.